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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Most Important Part of Goal Setting

All of us set goals for ourselves many times throughout our life. Some of us hit those goals, some of us don't.

Whether you hit your goal or not, the most important part is the take-away (assuming that we finish what we started).

What did you learn throughout your journey?
What did you learn that worked for you?
What did you learn that set you back?
What kept you motivated to continue on when you didn't 'feel' like sticking to your plan?

Learning these elements are vastly more important than actually hitting the goal itself. We are going to make tons of goals throughout our life time. The things we learn about ourselves throughout the experience of attaining a goal is going to ensure whether we hit our future goals or not.

The problem with people who don't have goals or are afraid to set goals for themselves is they lack experience of going through the process of reaching a goal. It takes personal experience, sacrificing the short term pleasure for long term success, and creating the daily habits of doing exactly what it takes to reach a goal.

It is easy to stick to your plan for the first few days/weeks, but you really will learn what you are made of when you continue to stick to your habits when you DONT want too. You have to prove to yourself that you can stay on your plan when you immediate emotions what to give in and let yourself off the hook. Once you make it through that process is where the real learning begins and the real motivation and mental toughness can happen within yourself.

The great thing about setting a goal, stretching yourself and finishing. Is that you are doing more than you did before you set your goal and you automatically get BETTER. Even if you don't hit exactly what you set out to accomplish you have to realize that you have accomplished more then you have before you set your goal. And when you continue to do that and work through the goal accomplishing process you will continue to improve yourself and your quality of life. And that is what counts.